Earthquake relief will be challenging in war-torn Syria. Here’s how aid agencies are trying to help

Two major earthquakes, followed by aftershocks, have devastated parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria and killed thousands of people. But the destruction in Syria has made the desperate situation even worse for millions of people who have survived the country’s civil war.

The worst-affected areas are among the hardest bombed and fought in the 12-year conflict, including Idlib province. The area is controlled by militant groups engaged in active fighting against Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

“We need help. We need the international community to support us,” Ismail Alabdullah, a member of the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said in a video posted on social media from Salqin in Idlib province.

Alabdullah, standing in front of the mountain of rubble, said dozens of families were trapped in the collapsed building and White Helmets volunteers were trying to save who they could. But he fears that the death toll will rise significantly.

International aid agencies have issued an urgent appeal for financial assistance to support relief and rescue efforts. But in a country that has experienced long-standing disasters – one that has seen international support dwindle as the conflict continues and attention is diverted elsewhere – the demand for humanitarian support has increased ahead of another disaster.

“It has not become easier after 12 years. Every day people are displaced and have to flee their homes, the situation is getting more difficult,” said Rula Amin, senior communications adviser for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). ), told CBC News Network in an interview from Amman, Jordan.

“These people suffer from one crisis to another.”

The situation is desperate in Syria

According to Doctors Without Borders, of the 6.8 million people displaced in Syria, approx 2.7 million are in northwestern Syria and the majority are women and children.

They live in tents or buildings damaged by the war, Amin said, and many health facilities in war-torn areas are only partially functional or non-functional. Many families do not have the means to provide food and education for their children, he explained.

To make matters worse, there was a winter storm hitting part of the region when the earthquake struck, said Wassim Khemadja, in Turkey and Northwest Syria Director for UK-based aid Action for Humanity. The group and its affiliate, Syria Relief, work in northern Syria, including in opposition-held Idlib.

“Now they are sitting on the street and without blankets, without food, without water in the freezing weather,” he told CBC News from the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the epicenter.

As the earthquake has caused so much damage, communication has been severely affected and Khemadja said it is very difficult for him and his organization to assess all the damage in Idlib.

Regardless of who controls one area or the other, Khemadja said neither the government nor the opposition groups could manage the situation alone because important infrastructure and utilities had been destroyed before the earthquake.

Politics and divisions must be put aside to help everyone in need, Amin added.

A damaged water system poses a risk

Elsewhere in the north of the country, Oxfam International is trying to assess the damage in the government-held areas where it works, including Tartus, Latakia, and Aleppo – a city that suffered intense aerial bombardment in 2016 during a Russian-led offensive against opposition strongholds .

On top of dozens of collapsed buildings in Aleppo, water tanks and reservoirs have also been damaged or destroyed, said Moutaz Adham, Oxfam’s country director in Syria.

“We must work to rehabilitate this water system to ensure that people have access [to clean drinking water]”he said from the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Limited access to safe water has led to a cholera outbreak across Syria, killing an estimated 85,000 people since September, with Aleppo and Idlib among the worst-affected areas, according to the United Nations (UN).

Adham said that even if there is a decrease in the spread of the highly infectious disease – which causes diarrhoea, vomiting, dehydration and death if left untreated – cases could rise again with more damaged infrastructure.

Aid workers were killed

Further complicating aid efforts is the fact that employees of international agencies working in Syria have been affected by the powerful earthquake.

Amin said UNHCR workers in the affected areas have been counted, but Action For Humanity is missing at least two workers in Syria, Khemadja told CBC News.

One of them was a medical worker, who died along with his two children, and the other was one of the organization’s data management staff who died with his entire family. Both live in Idlib province. Staff based in Syria and Turkey also suffered damage to their homes and lost relatives in the quake.

Doctors Without Borders also confirmed, in a news release, the death of one of its staff members, also in Idlib.

Although Adham said no Oxfam staff were killed in the earthquake, they were deeply affected.

“Many of our staff were traumatized by the event. Many of our staff had to sleep or spend the night on the streets because they were concerned and felt it was not safe to return to the building,” he said.

This is another challenge that agencies like Oxfam have to deal with when trying to save people.

What support can the organization provide?

Amin said UNHCR aims to send tents, plastic sheeting, mattresses, blankets and winter coats, while other UN agencies will help with medical supplies to treat the wounded.

He said there is also a need for equipment to rescue people trapped under mountains of concrete rubble that used to be houses.

“Because of what happened in Syria in the last 12 years, what happened in the northwest [of the country] or in areas controlled by the government, there are some tools that people can use to extract the bodies from the rubble in time to save the lives,” explained Amin.[Families] pulled out with his own hands. He uses his fingers, his fingernails, to pull it out.”

Shortly after the earthquake, Action for Humanity worked to provide food and shelter to survivors.

Khemadja said charity staff were providing hot meals at temporary shelters that had been set up for people who lost their homes. The organization also assembles emergency kits that include ready-to-eat meals to last a family for a week, for people who have shelter but not the means to cook, along with other non-food items like blankets, hygiene products and soap.

But aid resources in Syria have been stretched thin and will require substantial international support for recovery efforts. Oxfam, for example, met only 48 percent of its funding appeals to respond to the Syrian crisis last year, Adham said.

“When you talk about the 52 percent who haven’t met, you can only think of the millions of people who can’t respond,” he said. He said the priority now is whether the organization’s humanitarian response plan can be funded.

“This is not the time to give up on the Syrian people,” he said.